Renzi’s grab for power angers Italians

Italian Prime Minister-designate Matteo Renzi arrives to lead consultations with leaders of Italian parties at the Parliament in Rome. REUTERS/Remo Casilli

Rome - Italy's prime minister-designate Matteo Renzi has taken a battering in opinion polls even before he takes office, with many unhappy about his grab for power.

Sixty-five percent described Renzi's abrupt ousting of Enrico Letta at the helm of the leftist Democratic Party as a “blow to democracy”, according to a poll published Wednesday in La Stampa daily.

Only 26 percent of the 509 people questioned said it was a “normal” change in government, the poll conducted by the Institut Piepoli found.

Renzi, 39, is currently in talks to try to form a new coalition government after being nominated prime minister designate on Monday.

The current mayor of Florence, who will become the European Union's youngest prime minister when he formally takes office, has pledged rapid reforms to get the eurozone's third largest economy moving again.

But the poll found that 49 percent had “little or no confidence” in a Renzi government, against 46 percent who were “quite or very” confident.

Renzi's coalition negotiations are set to wrap up on Thursday and he is expected then to submit his cabinet lineup to President Giorgio Napolitano before the government is sworn in and voted into office by parliament. - AFP